Makropoulos: Why were they silent in Prague?

6/14/2004 – Georgios Makropoulos has been a high FIDE dignitary for almost a quarter of a century. Recently the eloquent and humourous Greek sat down for an interview with "Sport-Express" journalist Yuri Vassiliev, talking about the FIDE World Chess Championship in Tripoli and reunification. We bring you excerpts...

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"During
the FIDE Congress in Bled I was able to see for myself how this Greek, with
his ironic manner, is able to captivate a big audience," writes Vassiliev.
"His large expressive eyes shine, his voice is like thunder, as if the
spirit of Zeus was alive in him. His nose which is similar to the beak of a
bird of prey." He spoke to the Russian journalist on a number of subjects.

On the refusal of many strong GMs to participate in the forthcoming
FIDE World Championship in Tripoli, and whether it has seriously damaged
the prestige of this event.

The roots have to be sought for in the Prague Agreement of 2002. In Prague
the top players who are now boycotting the World Championship were silent.
I proposed a completely different variation unification, one in which Kasparov,
all FIDE World Champions and the finalists and semifinalists of the last FIDE
World Chess Championship would take part. It would have been an excellent solution
with Ponomariov, Anand, Karpov, Khalifman, Svidler, Ivanchuk playing.

But this proposal did not suit Kasparov, who was supported by Yasser Seirawan,
the initiator of the Prague Agreement. Seirawan drew out a beautiful plan for
the professional structure in the world chess and proposed a business plan
for it. Bessel Kok, the organiser of the Prague meeting, promised to actively
participate in these initiatives. But where is Mr. Kok and his sponsors today?
Where is Mr. Seirawan with his business-plan? Everyone in criticizing Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov for taking money from such difficult regions as Libya. But Libya
is the only country which offered to finance the World Championship.

On Vishy Anand's refusal to play in Tripoli in the basis that he
thought it unfair to give special privileges to one player (Kasparov).

I do not doubt Anand's sincerity, he does not play with words and says what
he thinks. A number of strong Russian players share this position, but they
are afraid to say so and make up absurd reasons for their non-participation.
These people were silent in Prague, and now they chose the tactics of the boycott.
They are not brave enough to name real reasons of their refusal. With regard
to special privileges given to Kasparov, everyone knows that the participation
of the greatest player in chess history is a magnet for the sponsorship money.
Players who do not want to give Kasparov a chance to return to FIDE fold do
understand the situation. They were silent in Prague, and now are trying to
discredit FIDE in any possible way.

On the problems of Israeli and Jewish players of taking part in
a world championship in Tripoli.

Libya offered to organize the World Championship in Tripoli. It was the only
real bid that FIDE received, with all the necessary financial guarantees. The
organisers agreed to send invitations to all players, without exception. Unfortunately
this did not include provisions for accompanying persons: coaches, bodyguards,
etc. when the scandalous
remarks of Mohammed Al Gadhafi were published we immediately requested
clarification form the Libyans. We were told that there had been no such statement.
Mr. Al Gadhafi had been asked whether he had sent personal invitations to the
Israeli players, and he replied that he had not personally send out such invitations.
He reconfirmed the Organising Committee guarantees to all players, without
any exception, that they would receive entry visas to Libya.

FIDE cannot cancel a world championship on the basis of conjectures published
on the Internet. We corresponded with the Israeli Chess Federation, which asked
us about security for their players, and about entry visas for accompanying
persons. There were discussions about a meeting between representatives of
Israel and Libya, to be held somewhere in Europe. In the end the Israeli chess
players decided not to participate in the Tripoli world championship. They
said that they could not go without their trainers and accompanying persons.
They are right, and our regulations have nothing to regulate this issue, since
it could not have been anticipated when the regulations were created. They
will be changed at the next FIDE General Assembly meeting. On the other hand,
I can understand that Libyan was not prepared to allow the Israelis to enter
the country with armed security agents. All of these are very sensitive issues,
but where do you see the discrimination of Israel?

On the collapse of the Ponomariov-Kasparov match last year.

During the Bled Olympiad we tried to meet with Ponomariov, but he avoided
us. That is why we had to go to Wijk aan Zee. This brought on an ocean of criticism,
with people claiming that we were disturbing Ruslan's concentration. I would
like to remind you that Ponomariov had a bad start in the Wijk tournament.
But after our meeting he beat Kramnik. Probably Ponomariov would have won the
tournament if we had continues to negotiate! But seriously: from the start
we had the impression that Ponomariov was not willing to play a match against
Kasparov. When he sent his last very strange letter to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov he
was clearly trying to have the match cancelled. We did not substitute Ivanchuk
in Ponomariov's place because then Kasparov would not have played against the
FIDE World Champion. That is why we decided to organize the World Championship
in Libya, to enable Kasparov meet with the highest title holder in FIDE. This
is along the lines of the idea of world chess reunification. This is the only
way forward for the international chess community. At the FIDE General Assembly
in October we shall announce exact dates of the match between Kasparov and the
winner of the World Championship in Tripoli.

See also

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12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!